Then by and by the monster came in, crying as before: 

  “Snouk but! and snouk ben! 
   I find the smell of an earthly man;
   Be he living, or be he dead,
   His heart this night shall kitchen my bread.”

Well, he quickly espied the young man, and bade him stand forth on the floor, and told him that if he could answer three questions his life would be spared.

So the first head asked:  “What’s the thing without an end?”

Now the younger brother had been told by the fairy to whom he had given a piece of his cake what he ought to say; so he answered: 

“A bowl.”

Then the first head frowned, but the second head asked: 

“The smaller the more dangerous; what’s that?”

“A bridge,” says the younger brother, quite fast.

Then the first and the second heads frowned, but the third head asked: 

“When does the dead carry the living? riddle me that.”

At this the young man answered up at once and said: 

“When a ship sails on the sea with men inside her.”

When the Red Ettin found all his riddles answered, he knew that his power was gone, so he tried to escape, but the young man took up an axe and hewed off the monster’s three heads.  Then he asked the old woman to show him where the king’s daughter lay; and the old woman took him upstairs, and opened a great many doors, and out of every door came a beautiful lady who had been imprisoned there by the Red Ettin; and last of all the ladies was the king’s daughter.  Then the old woman took him down into a low room, and there stood a stone pillar; but he had only to touch it with his wand, and his brother started into life.

So the whole of the prisoners were overjoyed at their deliverance, for which they thanked the younger brother again and again.  Next day they all set out for the king’s court, and a gallant company they made.  Then the king married his daughter to the young man who had delivered her, and gave a noble’s daughter to his brother.

So they all lived happily all the rest of their days.

THE FISH AND THE RING

Once upon a time there lived a Baron who was a great magician, and could tell by his arts and charms everything that was going to happen at any time.

Now this great lord had a little son born to him as heir to all his castles and lands.  So, when the little lad was about four years old, wishing to know what his fortune would be, the Baron looked in his Book of Fate to see what it foretold.

And, lo and behold! it was written that this much-loved, much-prized heir to all the great lands and castles was to marry a low-born maiden.  So the Baron was dismayed, and set to work by more arts and charms to discover if this maiden were already born, and if so, where she lived.

And he found out that she had just been born in a very poor house, where the poor parents were already burdened with five children.